Web 2.0 and Web Squared

Web 2.0 and web squared are terms used to discuss the development of the web, it's stages of life. The first stage of the web, surrounded the 'dot.com' boom which in 2001 crashed. Many thought that the internet was going to be over, instead it was reinvented and improved. Tim O'Reilly has written extensively on the subject in 2005 in his paper "What Is Web 2.0" which is available at /public/schedule/detail/10194/public/schedule/detail/10194 http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

In my mind web 2.0 co insides with the end of dial up and the development of broadband technologies, this may be be incorrect but it is symbolic of the new found internet, bigger and better then before which is the concept behind web 2.0. I myself have no or very little experience of the original Web as I would have been 10 when the dot.com era crashed and although aware of the internet, I didn't really discover things like e-mail and MSN messenger for my self until I was about 13. So I have no first hand knowledge of the differences between the web and web 2.0.

However, in O'Reilly's paper on Web 2.0 he talks about the web 'as a platform' and refers to web 2.0 with the emergence of google, blogging and wikipedia. Such platforms for interaction and expression which were not so accessible with the dot.com era. The dot.com era was more centered around individual websites with pages of flat information on them. Web 2.0 is much more interactive, about hyperlinks and interaction. Using the invention of such links to develop a system to search the web effectively.

Web 2.0 saw the emergence of such concepts as harnessing collective intelligence. The idea that the internet is user friendly and reshapeable information with multiple uses instead of simply digital pages of information. Along with this is the concept of Folksonomy, information which is 'tagged' and categorised by the users. e.g. Flickr, that there can be several ways to tag and compartmentalise information on the web. A focus on services which are provided on the web, via the web as opposed to the previous focus on software. Web 2.0 saw the emergence of the web as it is today, completely open and interactive rather than rigid and with singular uses.

Web squared refers more accurately to the web that we use today. Web 2.0 is still considered to be highly revolutionary and in many cases still a point of discussion when talking about the history of the web. 'Web squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On' is a second paper written by Tim O'Reilly this time with John Battelle on the subject identifying how the web has since evolved, which can be found at http://www.web2summit.com/web2009/public/schedule/detail/10194

Web squared refers to the current explosion of web applications which have transformed internet usage from a computer at a desk to the mobile/smartphone era. With WIFI basically second nature and the development of sites like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter have demonstrated the insight of collective intelligence in new ways, most of all proving that the real power of these technologies is not the application itself, but the users. All of these sites would be nothing without the users which make them, follow them, update them etc. Web squared also refers to how sensors have changed the way we use the internet, the invention of satnav has transcended into sensors on mobile phones which incorporate the internet in ways which tell us where we are, what we're looking at etc. e.g. Googlemaps has been taken even more further with the use of smartphones, being able to use the application in real time as you walk around.

This new and extreme level of human, web participation has made the idea of being connected almost an extension of breathing and talking in many ways. I heard politicians on TV discussing the Prime Ministerial debate commenting on how Facebook and Twitter enabled the discussion of the debate to happen in realtime with each step of the debate, so that within seconds of the debate having finished there was already public indication online of who they felt had won.

This is an extension of Web 2.0 which was merely considered to be interactive on a new level, Web squared takes the internet and literally incorporates it into a realtime accomplice to our lives. Not just for geeky internet fans but as a recognised and powerful communication tool as mentioned during the Prime Ministerial debate. As O'Reilly and Battelle put it "2009 marks a pivot point in the History of the Web...it is no longer an industry unto itself- the Web is now the world".

This statement may seem as if it is taking things a bit far, but when analysing the way we each seem to use the internet in our daily lives this is sadly quite the reality. The internet is everything from social networking sites to reading the paper online. Literally everything is online, this even go's so far to suggest some people are living there lives online as to some extent this is indeed possible with sites like Second Life. I like to take a cynical perspective of this and think it's nice to still have 'real' copies of newspapers, and phone calls instead of Facebook messages etc. However even I use the internet everyday to stay connected to my world, and who knows where the Web will develop next. What will Web quadrupled hold?